Daughter Of Pilot Crusades For Radar

December 8, 1985|By Jon Marcus, Transportation Writer

Susan Connors DeCosta doesn`t think her father or 136 others on the ill- fated Fort Lauderdale-to-Dallas airplane flight he captained had to die.

DeCosta, 28, daughter of veteran Delta Air Lines Capt. Edward M. Connors, who piloted the plane that crashed near Dallas on Aug. 2, is crusading for the kind of advanced airport radar she says would have helped prevent the mishap.

``I`m angry and I`m frustrated,`` said DeCosta, of Fort Lauderdale, one of Connors` three daughters.``The more I find out, the more I think it was unnecessary.``

DeCosta, with the National Transportation Safety Association`s support, wants to find the families of the 42 victims from Broward and the 31 from Palm Beach County to campaign with her for Doppler radar in 10 airports, including Miami, Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International and Palm Beach International. Doppler detects the kind of wind shear believed responsible for the crash of Flight 191.

The Lockheed L-1011 crashed 1,700 feet short of the runway at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, apparently swept off course by a sudden burst of wind. Of the 161 passengers and crew, 137 died. Among them were Connors, 57, First Officer Rudy Price, 43, and Second Officer Nick Nassick, 44.

Tapes of conversations between the cockpit and the tower later showed a flight controller and an automatic warning system ordered Connors to abort the landing, but both were too late.

Connors never complained about safety problems, his airline or the Federal Aviation Administration, his daughter said.

``He was a very understanding man,`` she said.``I think he was a little more understanding of the bureaucracy than I am.``

The FAA agreed in late September to speed up development of Doppler radar, which is already in operation at airports in Memphis and Denver. The government also will spend $1.8 million to train commercial pilots to avoid wind shear.

National Transportation Safety Administration President Wayne Williams, a member of the faculty at Nova University, said the government should use its Aviation Trust Fund, derived from airline ticket taxes, which currently has a surplus of more than $3 billion.